Chris Pappas
October 23, 2026 · Newsletter
A personal note from me
It’s Vann, Chris’s husband. I don’t often write to you, but I read something that I wanted to share.
The New York Times published a profile of Chris yesterday with the headline: “His Election Could Decide Senate Control. He Could Make History, Too.”
Both halves of that headline are true. But Chris is only focused on the first one.
That’s who he is. When the Times asked him about making history, he said he isn’t thinking much about it, that he’s focused every day on the people of New Hampshire. On the trail it’s the same: affordable health care, high prices, corruption in Washington. He means every word. It’s one of the many reasons I love him.
But I’m his husband, not his campaign manager, so I get to say the other part out loud: If Chris wins in less than two weeks, he will be the first out gay man ever to serve in the United States Senate.
Here’s how long this has taken: Barney Frank became the first member of Congress to come out voluntarily in 1987. It took another 25 years for an openly gay candidate, Tammy Baldwin, to win a Senate seat. And in the entire history of that chamber, not one out gay man has ever served there.
Chris could change that. That matters. It matters to Chris and me, and it matters to people all across this country who have never once seen themselves in that room.
When Chris was growing up in Manchester, he attended one of the biggest public high schools in the state, and as far as he knew, there wasn’t a single out student there. No gay-straight alliance. Nobody to look at and think, that could be me. He has said he’s now living a life he didn’t think was possible back then.
He came out in college, returned home, and ran for the State House at age 22 without hiding who he was. New Hampshire embraced him then, and it’s embracing him now. Chris likes to point to our state motto, “Live Free or Die.” To him it means people here, whatever their politics, want their neighbors to be free to be themselves. I’ve watched that play out in coffee shops, at town halls, and on front porches across this state.
And Chris has never been quiet about the fight itself. In 2004 his very first speech on the House floor was against a bill to block New Hampshire from recognizing same-sex marriages. He called it what it was. He lost that vote. Five years later New Hampshire legalized marriage equality, six years before it became the law of the land nationwide. In Congress he became co-chair of the Equality Caucus and has championed bills to expand civil rights protections for LGBTQ Americans and to restore benefits for veterans who were discharged just for being who they are.
I’ve never met anyone more patient about the long game or more stubborn about winning it.
That’s why it meant so much to me that the Times wrote about a young organizer who said that in part because of Chris, he came out to his family and friends and found out the people around him love him for exactly who he is.
There are kids in high schools all over this country right now walking the same hallway Chris did, unsure whether there will be a place for them wherever they want to end up. They’re watching this race whether anyone tells them to or not. If Chris wins they’ll see there’s no ceiling on what you can achieve based on who you love.
Somersworth’s Mayor Gerding told the Times this is the kind of milestone you’d want to sing from the rooftops. I agree. So consider this email my rooftop.
And it couldn’t come at a more important moment. Just last week the Vice President mocked a Democratic Senate candidate by falsely suggesting he was gay, as if that were an insult. As Chris put it, cynical attacks on the LGBTQ community have gone mainstream, and a lot of people are scared about where this country is headed. A win in New Hampshire would be a loud answer.
Republicans know what’s at stake, too: This race could decide who controls the Senate. If we win New Hampshire, Democrats can flip the Senate and finally put a check on this administration. If we lose Republicans keep their grip on the majority, and this era of chaos rolls on. And they’re spending over $60 million to do it.
On November 3rd we have a chance to take back the Senate majority and make history on the same night.
I’m so proud of Chris. I’m so proud of New Hampshire. Thank you for standing with us.
Vann Bentley (Chris’s husband)